


Force Stone

by TheKinkAwakens (thekinkawakens)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Force-Sensitive Finn, Gen, Master Anakin & Padawan Finn, Side Finn/Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 00:37:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6633835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekinkawakens/pseuds/TheKinkAwakens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn stumbles upon a stone that can summon old Jedi masters of the past while Luke and Rey are gone on a mission. A mysterious man named Ani offers to train him in the ways of the Jedi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Force Stone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



Finn needed to get away from the barely controlled chaos of the Resistance base. 

At first it had been great. Everyone was incredibly free on the base. They moved around wherever they wanted to when they weren't running a specific task. Someone could be one place at a certain time of day and the next day there was no telling where they'd be. There were no strict time schedules or monitors that alerted superior officers when you deviated from those schedules. It was everything the First Order wasn't.

And then it became overwhelming. No one knew where Finn should be or go. He was on a vague 'recovery' assignment. All the General had said was to rest and 'take some time.' The thrill of being able to do whatever he wanted had waned before the first day was over. Now three months in and still in 'recovery' the only thing he wanted was a schedule and something to do.

He wasn't going to bother anyone about it though. Every few days someone asked him about the workings of the First Order or had him look over some intel. Poe occasionally gave him busy work. He’d let Finn go over logistics with him, and taught him the basics of X Wing repairs. But Finn knew he could get everything done faster without Finn there.

In the First Order he’d been on the fast track to make Captain. He excelled in his trainings. He had responsibility and no one ever doubted that he’d be able to do what he’d been assigned. HIs entire life had been training and testing and more training. 

And now there was only waiting.

For a long time Finn had been waiting for Rey to return, but she had come back two weeks ago and outside of the occasional meal together his days were still as meaningless as ever. She spent most of her time training with Luke Skywalker. Finn was happy that she was going to become a Jedi and learn from a living legend. A small part of him though wished they were still wandering lost together.

 

Luke and Rey had gone off planet for the day. Rey had said the night before that there had been a disturbance in the force that they were going to check out. She didn’t know how long they’d be gone. Finn had smiled and wished her luck.

When Finn had left his room that morning he was overwhelmed with the desire to leave as well. Not for the first time he thought about catching a freighter to the outer rim, but the time for that had passed. Finn was now firmly part of the resistance, whether they had a use for him or not. 

Instead Finn found himself leaving the base and heading to the large cavern that Rey and Luke had created in the cliffs overlooking the river. It was a hollow room. There were training staffs leaning against a wall and several Jedi artifacts on display. Finn looked around as he paced. He ran his fingers over the large rock at the center of the room.

“So you’re back,” a voice said. Finn jumped up and turned to look around. Standing on top of the rock was the image of a tall man with messy brown hair. He looked as confused to see Finn as Finn was to see him. “You’re not Rey. Who are you?”

“FN- Finn,” Finn corrected himself, “I’m sorry, who are you? Is this a communication device?”

“Of a sort,” the man said. He had a scar on his face and a prosthetic arm. He was dressed in the Jedi robes of old. “What are you doing here Finn?”

“Nothing. I just wanted a place to be alone for awhile. I’m sorry for bothering you, I’ll go. Is there something I need to do to turn off this device or?” Finn examined the stone. It just looked like a rock, he wasn’t sure how it was projecting someone.

“No, stay. Rey didn’t mention that Luke had taken on two padawans,” the man’s voice was curious as he looked Finn over.

“I’m not a padawan. I’m just here because Rey and Luke are gone on a mission and I needed a place to hang,” he said. “I wouldn’t have touched this rock if I’d known it was whatever it is.”

“This is a spirit rock, it is an epicenter of the force. Through it Jedi and Sith alike are able to communicate with past masters of the force,” he said.

“So you’re,” Finn hesitated.

“Dead. Yes. Though the force sustains my soul, allowing a part of me to be resurrected to guide future generations. Tell me,” the man was looking at him intently, “do you know who I am?”

“A Jedi?” Finn asked. 

The man was silent for a moment. “Yes, I once was. Rey has never mentioned meeting me to you?”

“She doesn’t talk much about her training. Am I supposed to know who you are?” Finn asked.

“No. It’s not relevant. You can call me Ani,” he said. Ani was still staring at Finn with unblinking eyes. “ I can feel that you have a connection to the force, though something is blocking it. I have met people before who were disconnected from their natural talents, but yours is different. The disconnect is more solid, it feels more intentional.”

“That’s what master Luke said as well. He says with enough training I can overcome some of the conditioning, but it’s not worth it. I’ll never catch up to Rey, and they both need to be focusing all of their attention on training her,” Finn said. It had been unreal to learn that he could have been a Jedi in another life, but he’d tried to not think about it since his conversation with Luke. That was just one more thing to be resentful about, and he had enough of that in his life already.

“What lead to the suppression?” Ani asked. 

“Up until a few cycles ago I was a stormtrooper. I don’t know if you know what that is,” Finn said. He couldn’t tell what era the other man was from. His robes looked timeless, though the tech in his arm looked fairly recent.

Ani gave him an assessing look. “I know what stormtroopers are. Or what they were. In my day they were all clones, but you don’t look like a clone.”

“They don’t do that anymore,” Finn said.

“Then what? If you were not created for it did you chose to become a stormtrooper?” Ani asked.

“No. I was taken as a child,” Finn said. “They realized having genetic versatility among the troops would allow for greater cohesive strength since there was not a single flaw to exploit.”

“A slave,” Ani said. He practically spat the word out.

“I guess that’s one way to look at it. I don’t know much about that. All I know is what it was like growing up in the First Order. I’m glad to have left,” Finn said.

“I know about slavery,” Ani said. “So you’ve escaped, and now you’re working with the Jedi and the Resistance. You have a blocked connection with the force, but are not training to use it. Are you a soldier then or a pilot?”

“I’m nothing right now. I’m in recovery after getting injured in battle. After the General says I can be training for a task, but I’m not sure what.” 

“In the past Jedi would train all of their lives to be gain access to the energy stored in this stone.In the last century only three other people have been able to activate this stone. Luke, the one now called Kylo Ren, and Rey. And now you. And you did it without the knowledge of what it was.” 

“It was an accident,” Finn found himself saying again. Ani was still looking at him intently, assessing him. It reminded him of the way the specializers in the First Order would evaluate cadets. 

“There are no accidents. There are only things that the force wills that people do not understand,” Ani said. He seemed to come to a decision. “I will train you.”

 

“What?” Finn asked.

“I will train you. You have the potential to be a powerful Jedi, but you are right that Luke needs to devote all of his time to Rey. She has a path she must follow and a destiny she cannot avoid. But I can train you. If you come to me at night when they are asleep I will help you learn to use the force.”

“I don’t know,” Finn said.

“You said you had nothing else to do, didn’t you? Train with me. You will be better at whatever you end up doing for the Resistance if you have access to the force.”

It was true. The man looked harsh with his scarred face and assessing eyes, but Finn’s instincts were telling him to trust the man. “Alright,” he said. 

Training with Ani wasn’t half as glamorous as Finn had assumed. Even after hearing about the long cold mornings in meditation Rey had spent in the start of her own training with Luke Finn had still been anxious about beginning his training with Master Ani, certain that he was going to be tested and stretched to his limits. Instead it took days before he even got to meditate. 

 

First he had to tell Ani everything about his training. He talked about conditioning and the white sterile rooms where children would be sent for additional reinforcement. He described the dull thrumming pain that would linger in his mind after being hooked up to one of the white tentacled machines for hours. Ani listened to all of it with barely suppressed anger but never the pity or sadness that the resistance doctors had had when he’d glossed over everything. 

Ani had pointed questions that made Finn remember things he’d assumed he’d forgotten. Each conversation brought back new memories and details. By the end of their conversation Finn would be exhausted. 

Meditating wasn’t any better by the time they finally got to it. Ani admitted that it had never been something he’d excelled at, but it was the only way to push back what was blocking Finn from tapping into his force sensitivity. The first two nights were a wash. The third night Finn felt something. Finn chased it, following it deeper into his mind.

He woke up with his face planted against the dirt and drool on his cheek. A loud beeping beside him made him think he was back in the barracks with the alarm sounding, but when he turned over it was just BB-8. The small droid was beeping away at Ani. There was a pause in beeps and Anakin nodded his head, “Yes. I imagine that must have been very frustrating.”

BB-8 gave several more beeps in agreement. Finn still had no idea what it was saying. He groaned as he sat up. 

“BB-8 was sent to find you. The General requires your presence back on the base to go over the schematics Luke and Rey brought back from their mission,” Ani translated. 

“Right,” Finn said as he got up and stretched. He nodded goodbye to the man as he left. He didn’t know what the spirit did all day while he was away.

Rey’s face was sunburned and freckled. Luke’s nose was blistered. They both turned to greet him when he entered the command center.

“Sorry, I went out for a walk and fell asleep,” he said. He waited for a moment for BB-8 to correct him, but the droid just rolled over to Rey and beeped happily.

Luke and Rey had brought back First Order documents on a new weapon that could suppress the force. Kylo Ren had been tracking down those with force sensitivity since his interaction with Rey and experimenting on them using old Sith techniques to severe a person’s connection to the force. Some of it was similar to what Finn had undergone as a child, but the majority of it dealt with sith techniques that had been lost for centuries. 

They didn’t ask him about his own experience, instead he was there to provide insight into how the stormtroopers were locating the people with force sensitivity and abducting them without alerting anyone. The meeting lasted almost until sunset. 

“Do you want to go for a walk? I have too much energy to fall asleep yet,” Rey said. Finn agreed immediately. 

She told him about getting stuck on a scorching hot planet with Luke for day during the mission.

“Then Master Luke found a bright blue flower that was cool and wet to the touch. He already wasn’t doing well in the heat, you’d never believe now that he’d grown up on a desert planet,” Rey shook her head. “He decided to rub the liquid on his face because it had gotten badly burnt. An hour later his entire face was numb. He couldn’t speak for the rest of the day, but he kept making these sad soft complaining grunts,” Rey said and mimicked the noise with a laugh. Finn laughed too.

It was rare that they got to spend time together. When they made it to the edge of the cliff where the river became a waterfall they sat down together. 

Before he would have been jealous listening to her adventures. But now he could only think of his own training. It wasn’t as exciting, but it was more than he’d had since waking up from his coma. He didn’t mention it though, Ani had advised him to keep it quiet until the training progressed further. There wasn’t much to tell yet anyways. Instead he just grinned and listened to her talk.

Whenever they were together Finn could feel something between them, a soft tension that was almost tangible. Sometimes he convinced himself it was all in his head, but other times Rey would catch his eyes and give him a shy smile as she looked away. 

Finn found himself reaching out to place his hand on top of hers. It felt natural, like so much of their relationship did. Rey’s breath hitched for a moment as she spoke but she kept talking. Her cheeks seemed even redder underneath her sunburn though as she continued her story while intertwining her fingers with his. 

With Rey and Luke back Ani had them strictly training at night. 

“I understand that Rey and Luke need this space to train, but I don’t see why we have to be so secretive about all of this. Is it wrong for you to train me?” Finn asked. It was late and Ani still had him speaking quietly. There was something off about it. “Do you think they don’t want me learning all of this?”

“No, it’s not you. I’m sure they’d be happy to learn that you’ve been strengthening your connection with the force. It’s me they would have concerns about,” Ani said.

“You?” Finn thought about it. Ani was a good teacher.He was kind. He clearly cared about Finn though they hadn’t known each other long. In a way he reminded Finn of Rey, he was protective and loyal. He was also passionate. There was an anger in him that he did his best to keep under wraps. At times Finn could feel a flicker of darkness coming from him as they meditated, but there was also an almost blinding amount of light as well. 

He didn’t speak much about his life, but Finn could tell it hadn’t been an easy one. There was a seriousness about him that spoke of harsh experiences. He also had a keen sense of humor, though Finn had trouble understanding when he was joking since he tended to keep his expression neutral. 

“Yes. I have not always made the best decisions. And during my life I strayed far from the light at times. In death I’ve worked to overcome some of what I’d done in my life. I told you before that there have only been three others who’ve accessed the stone in the past era and that one was the man now known as Kylo Ren. I knew him as Ben. He’d come to me often as a youth. There was an incredible amount of darkness in him, made worse by the influence of Snoke.”

Ani paused. He was staring off into the darkness of the cavern. “I tried to teach him a middle path. I wanted him to find balance within himself. He was too angry to be a Jedi, so I told him there were other ways to use the force, that there was grayness between the black and white of the Jedi and the sith. He heard only what he wanted to, only what Snoke told him to listen to. Luke blames me for turning him against the light, for leading him to become a Knight of Ren. Rey does as well. I can’t blame them, but it was never my intention for him to become what he has become.”  
“You think if they knew you were training me that they’d think you were trying to lead me to the darkness too?”

“No. I don’t think anyone would be foolish enough to believe that you could be lead to the darkness. If a lifetime of conditioning only furthered your commitment to the light, there’s little an image of a man coming from a stone can do. But they still would be concerned that I would find a way to hurt you. Luke has grown guarded since Kylo Ren’s betrayal. He has lost faith in love and decided to follow the old ways of the Jedi by distancing himself the material world. He is teaching Rey the same thing. Neither of them will forgive me for what I’ve done. There will come a time when the truth will come out, but until it is necessary I think it’s best to keep this from them.”

Finn wasn’t sure that he agreed. It wasn’t in his nature to keep secrets from friends, and the thought of intentionally keeping something from Rey because he knew she would disapprove made him uncomfortable. It had been one thing when it hadn’t seemed worth mentioning. This was something different. But there was sadness in Ani’s eyes as he spoke. Their training had already lessened Finn’s nightmares and each day it felt like a weight was being lifted from his mind. 

They moved beyond meditation to physical training. Finn’s doctor had given him the go ahead for more intensive exercise and he relished finally being able to get up and move. Ani had him using moving his body in ways that he hadn’t known were previously possible. 

He was following Ani’s instructions, balancing on one foot as he reached up to the sky when Rey found him. 

“What are you doing? You’re not supposed to be here,” her voice was harsh. Finn turned to answer but noticed that she was talking to Ani instead. 

“I’m helping your friend unlock his potential, nothing more,” Ani said. 

They were glaring at each other, communicating with their eyes. “You’ve gone too far. I’m going to tell Master Luke. Come on Finn,” she said.

Finn hesitated, but Ani nodded at him. He stood up and stretched before following Rey who was still glaring and waiting at the entrance of the cave.

“I cannot believe his nerve. How did he even manifest?” 

“That was my fault, I went in there one day and summoned him. Master Ani has been helping me train.”

“Master Ani?” She repeated with a raised brow. She looked like she’d bitten into something sour.

“Yes. He thinks I could become a Jedi,” he said.

“Of course you could become a Jedi. But you don’t need him to do so. Master Luke has already offered to train you.”

“We went over why that’s not a good idea. I like Master Ani, and he has nothing better to do.” 

“Do you really not know who he is?” Rey asked. “Ani is Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader. He pretends to be reformed, to have seen the light. But he was the one who lead Kylo Ren to the dark side. Even now, when I’ve talked to him he acts like there is no such thing as the light side and the dark side. His words are poisonous.”

“He told me about Kylo Ren. Rey, there was no way a man like Kylo could ever have been a Jedi. Ani was just trying to show him that someone doesn’t have to be either one or the other. Not being a Jedi doesn’t mean you have to embrace the dark side.”

“Listen to yourself Finn, you sound just like him. You already are beginning to believe the lies he’s told you,” Rey said. 

“He hasn’t been lying to me.” Rey glared at him. “Really. He hasn’t. He told me about Kylo. He never told me his full name, but I also didn’t ask. He’s been helping me clear my mind. And it’s been working. I didn’t even know that I’d been getting headaches all of the time before because I was so use to them,” Finn said. 

Rey grabbed his hand. “Not telling you who he is is lying. Darth Vader was an evil man. He may have died reaching out towards the light, but that doesn’t erase decades of living in darkness. If you want to learn to be a Jedi come and train with Master Luke and me. There is nothing that man can teach you about the force that is worth the risk of spending time with him.”

"I understand why you don't trust him. I get it. I'm not saying you need to change your opinion on him. But he has never harmed me. And I don’t want to stop our lessons. I’ll be careful, but I do trust him. He's been there for me when no one else has," he said.

"When no one else has? I have always been here for you Finn,” she said. Finn looked away, unable to meet her upset gaze.

"It's not the same. You're my friend Rey. I care about you. But I never see you. I know you're busy training, and I'm proud of you. But you have Master Luke. Poe has an entire squadron and a dozen other friends on the base. The only thing I have is the time you guys can spare. I have no purpose here. Ani is the only person I have where I feel like I matter."

“You can come train with Master Luke and me. You don’t need him.”

“I’m nowhere near ready to begin training with you two. I still need him. I’ve improved a lot since beginning with him, but there’s still so many basic things I need to learn. I’m sorry. I’ll be careful, but I’m not going to stop training with him.”

“Just be careful,” Rey said.

“You’re back,” Ani said as soon as he appeared. Finn searched his face for some sign that he’d miss that should have told him who he had been talking to for over a cycle. “Rey summoned me. She was angry at me for lying to you. She seems to care deeply about you.”

“She’s protective of everyone she meets,” Finn said. He got out a practice mat and sat in front of the stone to begin his breathing exercises.

“Are you going to ask me why I didn’t tell you who I was?”

“No. I know why you didn’t. It’s the same reason I tried to avoid telling anyone on base who I use to be. I understand, even if Rey doesn’t.”

“Rey is sometimes too much like Padme. She is as strong willed as she is stubborn,” Ani said, sounding proud. “But you remind me of my old Master. You only see the best in people. Perhaps Rey is right when she says you’re too trusting.”

“Are you going to warn me away from yourself as well?”

“No. She may someday be right, but not today. I don’t want any harm to come to you Finn.” 

Whenever he saw Rey she pointedly did not mention his training with Ani, though Finn noticed that she approached him to spend time with her more often. She ate with him whenever she could and grabbed his hand to take him to parts of the planet her and Luke had stumbled upon during training. 

It all came to a head when Anakin decided he was ready to practice sparring. Finn had had to go the General herself to request a combat-droid to practice sparring against. She’d agreed to have one sent to the cavern. When he arrived however all he found was Rey. 

“What are you doing here?” Finn asked. 

“The general told me about your request. She said it might be better for you to practice against a real person instead though, so here I am,” she said. She didn’t look happy to be there. She was leaning against the cavern wall, dressed in a loose tunic and scowling at the stone. For once Ani hadn’t materialized as soon as Finn arrived. 

“I don’t need to practice sparring really. He said I just need to realign the flow of the force through my body when I move.”

“Then going against a real living person will be even more beneficial to you,” she said.

Finn cast another glance at the stone, but Ani still wasn’t showing up. “He’s usually here by now, should I go over and activate him?” Finn wasn’t sure how to actually intentionally summon Ani, the man usually just appeared. The stone still just looked like a stone.

“We don’t need him. It’s not like there’s much he can do as a manifestation anyways.”

“You feel different. I’ve been able to feel you slowly changing over the last cycle. Your mind is clearer. And I can feel the force thrumming beneath your skin sometimes when I’m near you. Before it was a light thrumming, now though it is clear and loud.

“Alright, let’s do a quick practice spar to warm up,” she said. Her voice was calm as she got into position. He matched her movements. It felt good to move outside of stretching and the physical therapy he was still going to. 

He’d tried to stay in fit despite the restrictions the medics had put on him, but he was still breathing heavy by the time the match was over. 

“Technically you’re a good sparer, but you didn’t use the force at all,” Rey said.

“It was just a practice spar, there wasn’t any need to,” Finn said. There had been a whisper in the back of his head. A few moments he had even felt like he could sense what she was going to do before she’d done it. But it had been distracting so he’d pushed it away to focus on the match. 

Rey placed a hand on his hip. “Your issue is that your form is too perfect, too controlled. You need to move more organically and allow the force to guide you. You need to release the tension in your body.” 

“Right,” Finn said, like he was going to be able to relax when he could feel the heat from her hand through the thin black shirt he was wearing. 

“Here,” Rey held up a worn white cloth. “When I was first practicing Master Luke had me blindfolded most of the time so I’d stop watching and thinking and learn to feel.”

“Oh,” Finn said. He stood still as Rey placed a hand on his face and covered his face with the cloth. 

With his eyes covered he found himself listening the fall of her footsteps as she moved. They’d done trainings like this in the First Order. Sometimes a helmets visuals got compromised. He was able to block the first kick but got pinched in the side for his effort. “Stop listening to me breath and focus on feeling the moment out.”

He sighed and did his best to get into a meditative state. Rey knocked his feet from underneath him. He grunted and stood back up only to be knocked down again. “Really?”

“You should have seen how bruised my thighs were after a week of sparring with Master Luke. At least I’m not going to make you give me piggyback rides after,” she said. He could hear the laughter in her voice.

Neither the thought of Reys thighs or her comically attempting to carry the old man around was helping him concentrate though.

He gave up by the fifth time and reached out as he fell take her with him. She grunted as she fell across him and then grunted and went to get up. Finn tackled her. As long as they both stayed on the ground he wouldn’t have to fall on his ass anymore. She launched herself back at him.

They grappled on the floor for several moments. It was easier to anticipate her moves when their was skin contact between them. She was incredibly fast, but what made her so difficult to pin down was that she always seemed to know exactly what he was going to do before he did it. No matter how many times Finn was able to tap into and realize that she was going to be doing she was still several steps ahead of him.

He was covered in sweat by the time he gave up, letting himself be pinned with grunt as she dug her knees into his kidney. 

“That was much better,” she said. He was happy to hear that she was out of breath as well, though not as much as he was. 

“Thanks,” he said, wincing as he sat up. He was going to be tender for days. He reached behind him to take off the blindfold. “Where did you learn to tie knots anyways?” He could feel three distinct lumps in the fabric. 

“Here,” she said. Her hands joined his and he could feel her breath on his cheek. She had each of the knots done in seconds. “There you go.” The fabric slid down his face.

Without the cloth between them Finn realized just how close she was to him. He could see flecks of gold in her irises. 

Rey seemed to notice too. She pulled back for a moment before biting her lip and leaning back towards him. She leaned in and kissed him. Her lips were chapped and dry against his. It was only as he pulled away that he realized that at least one of them should have closed their eyes. 

Rey stared into his eyes for a moment, cheeks red, before pulling away. 

“You’re going to be a great Jedi someday,” Rey said.

“Ah, thanks?” Finn didn’t know what to say to that. He was still trying to figure out if they’d really just kissed.

“Right,” she stood up and stretched. “Well, I’m going to go now. I need to do other stuff, but that was great. The training. The training was just, it was really great.”

“Okay,” Finn said. 

“Well see you at breakfast!” Rey got up and brushed off her pants. 

Finn watched her go with wide eyes. 

“What just happened” he wondered aloud. 

“That was the most awkward kiss I’ve ever witnessed,” Ani said.

“Really man, you’re going to appear now?” He groaned and pushed his head back against the wall. “How much of that did you see?”

“All of it. It was obvious how it was going to end, but I really thought at least one of you would be smoother.”

“Shut up,” Finn said. 

“Cheer up, she was right about one thing. You’re going to be a great Jedi someday.”


End file.
